Phenomenon of Co-Presence: Synergy of Counseling and Psychotherapy

As more and more people seek psychotherapeutic support, the current global situation gives their demands and expectations a certain shared specificity. An effective system of psychological support needs to bridge the gap between the academic psychology and the applied psychotherapy. This research examined the phenomenon and structure of co-presence as a synergetic stage in relations between the psychologist and the client during various types of psychotherapy. It relied on the method of a phenomenological in-depth semi-structured interview, A. Giorgi and B. Giorgi’s qualitative data analysis, the method of group semantic universal, and the factor analysis. The obtained integral model of co-presence was tested as a semantic differential of Psychotherapeutic Co-Presence (see Appendix for a sample form). This complex study proved that co-presence is a comprehensive part of the psychotherapeutic process with particular substantive aspects for each stage of experience. The practical value of the proven hypothesis opens up some prospects of further empirical research.